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Our world is experiencing a dramatic increase in violence and conflict. While the ultimate goal of all conflict is to bring about new order and peace, history shows that violence most often delays this goal. Peace comes out of dialogue and negotiation which occur after violence ceases. It is therefore most intelligent to bypass violence as a path to conflict resolution and move directly into negotiation. The consciousness of humankind must expand to embrace nonviolent communication as the only means to intelligent resolution of conflict. Religious traditions and spiritual practices around the world bring the quest for peace to the forefront in their teachings, practices and rituals. The ringing of noontime bells can be heard heralding from monasteries, churches and worshiping communities, fostering an atmosphere that invites harmony and peace. These bells have rung for centuries as an invitation to pause and bring to mind the value and importance of peace within the community. In our current era of technological advance "the community" is no longer defined by neighborhood and town borders nor by municipality, state and national boundaries. The concept of "community" now means, "the whole of humankind." The current world situation commands us to see the whole of humankind as our community. For true and lasting harmony to exist, peoples of all nationalities, races and creeds must respect and honor diversity and simultaneously recognize the fundamental unity of the human species. Our aim is to encourage all communities around the world to ring the bells of religious centers, civic buildings and private institutions at the noon hour. The ringing of the bells is meant to alert each person to take a few moments to cultivate and inner awareness of global peace and encourage its being lived in all situations at all times. With this reminder, this call to attention, at each hour of the day, humankind somewhere in the world is intending and creating the condition for global harmony and world peace. This heralding of the bells is sent as a plea for humankind to think and act globally and intelligently as a unified family in search of lasting peace and harmony. The common person, the ordinary person, tends to feel helpless in conditions that affect the helpless masses. What is not realized is that the people in positions of leadership are also helpless in that they are moved along by collective social forces as well as the dynamic energies of the "collective unconscious." "Imagine," as did John Lennon, "all the people living life in peace." Heralding Thoughts of World Peace borrows the concept of critical mass from physics and applies it to human consciousness; that is, a certain minimum of mass (i.e. conscious intention) is needed to produce a fission that leads to a nuclear (i.e. thought/feeling) chain reaction. The ringing of the noontime bells heralding thoughts and intentions for world peace in each person, neighborhood, community and nation can have a ripple effect, as a stone in a pond or as "the wave" in the sports stadium. This can affect the collective consciousness of the whole of humankind. Thoughts of peace are the fissionable material of each and every human being on the planet regardless of race, religion, age, gender or nationality. Hear the plea, empower yourself and your neighbors to have an impact on the global experience of humankind and all beings on the planet. The HNC Committee |
